I was going to jump all over the al jazeera source but it seems that has already been done.. I say take this with a grain of salt because of the source.  However, it is very believable because there are still military bases throughout the world like in Korea and Japan and those countries are extremely independent, so that kind of kills the lack of independence arguement

If you are so opposed to eating meat, what do you say to all of the farmers and their families who depend on the meat industry to survive

How is the struggling American economy supposed to compensate for a loss of a billion dollar industry?